Stop Smoking With Hypnosis

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I’ve said many times on this blog that the best way to free yourself from the smoking habit is to quit smoking through hypnosis. This opinion isn’t based on my own direct experience with hypnosis. I’ve simply noticed that, whenever I run into someone who actually succeeded in quitting smoking and stayed quit, hypnosis in some form was always what worked for them. Period.

That’s why I was excited to receive a blog comment last week from a real, practicing hypnotherapist who works in helping people quit smoking for good. I got in touch with her by email and she has been good enough to write a short post about hypnosis for us. This article isn’t focussed on smoking. Instead, it explains a bit about what hypnosis actually is and puts to rest some of the misgivings you may have had when considering using hypnosis to stop smoking.

Rue Asher has her practice in Sussex, in the UK, so most of us won’t be able to take advantage of her services. For those lucky ones who do live in England, here are her business details:

Website: Stop Smoking With Rue Asher

Phone: 01273470498

Address:
10A (Basement flat ) St.John’s Terrace
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 2DL

Exploring the Myths About Hypnosis

by Rue Asher

The misconception and impression that many people hold about hypnosis is that it’s something magical, mystical and even dangerous. Hypnosis has even been portrayed as a scary form of mind control, where people are made to give up control of themselves. Speaking as a practicing hypnotherapist for many years, if hypnotherapists could really control other people’s minds and ultimately their behaviours, then there is the possibility that few would be continuing to practice and instead be lying on a tropical beach somewhere counting their money, not to mention enjoying daily breakfast in bed from their partner (one can only dream). It is in fact the complete opposite, as people visit clinical hypnotherapists or utilise self-hypnosis because they want help to gain more control over their lives, to change limiting persistent habits and behaviours.

The phenomenon of hypnosis is firstly, and most importantly, a natural state of mind, which means that virtually every person has the capacity to respond on some level. It is simply a state of physical, mental and emotional relaxation, along with a heightened state of awareness. This change of consciousness is extremely comfortable and relaxing, just like those moments before you fall asleep and as you start to wake up in the morning. You’ll feel very relaxed, yet your mind will still be highly focused and aware. And when you are in this state you are more open to suggestion, suggestions you give yourself or the suggestions given by the hypnotherapist whose job it is to guide you.

Hypnosis – a familiar sensation

Hypnosis is a means of moving into a perfectly natural state of mind, that people actually move in and out of several times a day. Everyone has experienced this trance like state, although they may not have called it hypnosis. We all go in and out of different levels of consciousness all day. Daydreaming, reading, driving are all examples of everyday tasks when we may enter an altered state of awareness.

Have you ever had the experience of driving along the motorway and suddenly realised that you passed your exit several miles back? Or have you ever been so caught up in a TV programme, a book, a film or computer game that you’ve lost track of time, or not realised that someone has been talking to you?

These changes in our awareness occur when we become so wholly focused on a task to the exclusion of everything else. Our sense of time may become distorted and subjective and we no longer pay attention to outside disturbances.

Hypnosis is just another example of an altered state of awareness. The difference being that it can be utilised for self-change as we are also much more open and responsive to positive suggestion in this state.

So, when a hypnotherapist guides you into hypnosis they are not asking you to experience anything strange that you haven’t experienced before. This is why sometimes people come out of trance unsure whether they were actually hypnotised or not, as it is such a familiar feeling.